Join hard drives - how it works
If you want to join two hard disks under Windows, you have to consider a few requirements. We'll show you how to do it step by step.
Notes on merging hard drives
Many computers have only one or two hard drives. These are in turn divided into several partitions. Strictly speaking, partitions and no hard disks are put together.
- Under Windows, only partitions can be merged that are directly next to each other in the disk management. If this is not the case, you must first resolve the partitions in between.
- Partitions can also only be expanded from left to right. Usually the larger partitions are already on the left.
- To merge two hard drives, the second hard drive must be deleted. Therefore, you should move the data from the second hard disk to the first one or back it up to a storage device.
Step 1: delete hard drive under Windows
In the following instructions, the computer has two partitions, "C:" and "D:". Due to the ranking, partition D is deleted and added to partition C.
- Press the [Windows] and [X] keys at the same time, so that the context menu opens at the bottom left.
- Select the "Disk Management" here and click on the desired hard disk at the top.
- Right-click on partition D and select the "Delete Volume" option.
- Confirm the process with "Yes" and then select the "Delete partition" option.
- If you confirm the operation again, partition D will be removed. Partition C can now be expanded with the storage of partition D.
Step 2: merge hard drive partitions under Windows
- Right-click on partition C and select the "Extend Volume" option.
- Click here on "Next" and, if necessary, select the storage space that has just become available.
- If you click "Next" and "Finish" again, partition C will be enlarged.
- Your two hard drive partitions have now been successfully merged.
Link tip: The best SSD and SATA hard drives
If the storage space is still not large enough, even though you have merged the partitions, a larger model may have to be used. We put SATA and SSD hard drives through their paces. You can find the best models in our leaderboard.
In the next practical tip, we will show you how to mirror a hard drive.